The public hearing for the Malir Expressway project on Wednesday became a laughing stock when a Sindh government official present there conceded to have kicked off construction work on a 15-kilometre strip of the project without first letting the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) give it a go.
Infamous for being a toothless organisation, Sepa turned a blind eye towards the admission of this blatant violation of the law during the public hearing for the project.
Meanwhile, Sepa Director General Naeem Mughal, who has earned the reputation for never showing up on public hearings, was absent this time as well as he was during the public hearings for the Karachi Circular Railway on November 10, and for the restoration of Gujjar, Orangi and Mehmoodabad storm water drains on December 1.
The approval from the environmental watchdog is a must before starting any construction work for development projects. In this regard, Muhammad Toheed, a senior researcher of the Institute of Business Administration’s Urban Lab, cited the Section 17(1) of the Sepa Act 2014 that reads: “No proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation unless he has filed with the Agency an IEE or EIA, & has obtained from the Agency approval in respect thereof.”
He wondered how construction work on ground had already kicked off and a camp office also established without obtaining Sepa’s approval. Pictures and videos of the ground-levelling work were shown repeatedly to Sepa Deputy Director Imran Sadiq who made no comments on that.Sepa has miserably failed to implement its section 17(1) repeatedly. The demolition of houses along the railway track kicked off much before the public hearing for the KCR that was held last year.
